


Broken Key, Found

by Yvi



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Female Characters, Female Protagonist, Femslash, Jossverse - Freeform, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-16
Updated: 2010-05-16
Packaged: 2017-10-09 11:37:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/86884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yvi/pseuds/Yvi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You called all across space when you were dropped here. You left them behind."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Key, Found

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Moving On](https://archiveofourown.org/works/56636) by [Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye). 



She found the girl in the dark.

Not in the darkness Jayne meant when he said the word. But the girl was in the dark, and lost. And not a girl, not in the strictest sense.

A key without a lock.

River watched the girl from afar for a while. The others didn't notice. They went about their business blind to the fact that there was someone who didn't belong. But River could feel the darkness and the loss, she could see it.

When the girl went to work, River waited for a while. Then she entered the store, making no sound as she opened and closed the door.

"You're a broken key."

The girl spun around, eyes full of shock at being noticed. Identified.

"What did you say?"

"A broken key. Isn't that what you are?"

"Who are you?"

River shrugged. "Just a girl," she said. "I followed your call."

"I didn't call."

River paused for a moment. "You did. You called all across space when you were dropped here. You left them behind. You were lost."

The girl didn't argue with that.

"Morning break," River said.

"Dawn, yes. How did you know? And who are you?"

"I am water, flowing."

*

"You did what?"

Mal was angry, but River didn't particularly care, not any more than usually. He would do as she wished.

"I told her to come with us."

"River," Simon started, but trailed off as River raised her hand, demanding silence and getting it.

"She's lost. She needs to be fixed."

River didn't tell them why. A key without a lock, a Slayer without things to slay. Maybe you can't fix faith, but you can fix people. They heal. Just like the universe, they heal themselves.

*

"I don't understand," Dawn said.

River cocked her head. "You will." She had bent the truth a bit for Mal. Dawn hadn't been asked, but she would come.

Dawn tightened her grip on the counter in front of her, as if trying to regain her balance. "Why would I come with you?"

"I followed the call of the broken key. It needs to be fixed."

"There's no fixing this," Dawn said, and River could feel that she didn't yet consciously know why she was saying this. But Dawn was starting to realize that River _knew_. River knew what broke the key.

River looked down at herself, the red skirt looked a bit like fresh blood. "Some things get better."

"This doesn't," the girl replied and looked away. 

"You are lost. How did you get here?"

Dawn shrugged, not noticing that her mind was screaming at River. "I don't remember." 

"Neither does the universe." 

"What do you mean?"

River sighed, hating having to explain everything. "It doesn't remember how you came here. It's trying to, but there is a black spot where the memory should be."

*

The girl was in her room, dreaming of things with fangs and no souls. They weren't unlike Reavers, River decided. But the girl wasn't terrified of them, she knew what they were and how to slay them. The things here, they were different. 

River silently dropped out of her bed and left her room. She was good at this and no-one seemed to care much anymore. They thought she was 'doing well' now. 

Dawn's room opened up to her with no struggles, welcoming her like an old friend. Dawn herself lay on a blanket on the floor instead of in her bed. River watched her for a while, as Dawn moaned in her sleep. Her dreams were different now. No more demons in it. Another girl. 

River lay down beside the girl, her body only barely not touching the other. She sensed the other body's heat on her skin, and the other body's energy flowed into her, wrapping her. Energy, that was what Dawn was. Pretty energy. Dangerous energy. Passionate energy.

Dawn opened her eyes. "What are you doing here?" she asked. 

The energy subsided a bit and the warm feeling that had started to grow between River's legs started to go away, too. 

"I am," River said. There was no more reasoning to it. 

River kissed the girl. Her lips were soft and a bit swollen, maybe from biting on them in her sleep. Dawn responded, her body pushing into her direction just that tiny bit that was needed to cover the distance between the two of them. 

Dawn was trying to say something, but it got lost in the kisses. River's fingers gently removed the girl's clothing. 

Dawn drew her body back. "We shouldn't...," she said. 

River's fingers traced the line of Dawn's breasts. "There's no should, Unless you don't want to." Her hand tightened around Dawn's right breast, evoking a gasp from red lips. 

"I do." 

River took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the girl's forms when she had finished uncovering it. She had been made well; whoever it had been that did this was skillful. 

Fingers slid between legs, and a mouth licked over breasts. The morning break moaned. The mouth moved where the fingers had been, licking and sucking and causing more moans. 

"Let me...," Dawn said when she was breathing again, but River shook her head. 

"I am not lost, my girl," she said. She might be broken, but she wasn't lost. She didn't need something from Dawn. She already got that from someone else.

"So what, I am fixed now?" The energy shifted, red streaks flowing into the green.

River laughed. "No. But you have stopped screaming." 

* 

"There are Reavers here."  The fear rising in the people around her was almost too much for River. She reached out with her mind and found a calming presence. Dawn was not scared. 

"I have never met Reavers," Dawn said.

"Lucky girl. You'll hope it had stayed that way," Mal responded. 

But River could feel that Dawn thought differently. Dawn was confused, but also excited to fight. 

"You'll know what to do."  Dawn turned to her. The energy burned in her.

"You can be a Slayer, too." 

And Dawn believed her. 

**Author's Note:**

> Muchos gracias for the beta go to secondsilk :)


End file.
